While everyone is still flying on excitement from the 2009 event, Please post any ideas, suggestions, improvements for the 2010 event.

Putting the ideas here in one thread will be much easier to review later on, as opposed to having several threads of ideas running around.

A couple of the new things that I saw that I liked a lot were:

1.I really enjoyed and benefited nicely from the swap meet this year and would love to see that continue to grow and flourish!

2.I also loved the electro-fish installation and would like to see more sound installations like that in the festival in the future. It has me already thinking of ideas of my own.

3.I really like the Star Lake facility and would very much like to return!

4. Upstairs and Downstairs MC's to direct people to what is happening throughout the festival such as ... who is on next up and downstairs, whats happening in the workshops, etc. This could easily be announced by the Sound Eng.

5. Adding the Interviews to the streaming worked really well! They filled in the downtime well keeping streaming listeners interest (rather than loosing them in between acts) and it gave the performers a great outlet to talk, promote, and advertise their crafts!_________________ ElectroCasaLast edited by shanemorris on Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:47 am; edited 4 times in total

1) The Downstairs would benefit from being broken up into a performance space, a dining space and a swap/exhibition space. What would be nice would be to be able to separate the performance space from the rest. I felt bad for the performers who had to put up with non-audience activity there. The space looked like they could break it into smaller rooms, there are channels in the columns that make it look like it once had, or could have, dividers.

2) The jam space was a problem the first night; basically a conflicting use of the building occurred. That should be prevented from happening next year. I really think the jams should just be blocked into the performance schedule and done in the Downstairs.

3) The workshops I think went off pretty well but I know that lighting was a problem. In general, non stage lighting was inadequate.

4) The streaming booth was in a horrible place. We wouldn't have known that before hand. Not sure where to move it, but there are some options. Even inside the Upstairs room would be better than being in the middle of everything.

5) The internet connection was marginal. It will need to be secured next year to keep inadvertent use from dropping the stream. This happened a few times, and it's basically my own fault for trying to be nice and make things easy. I don't think it will be any better next year, so we'll have to limit access to it.

6) Putting more confortable furniture in certain places (lounge for example) might really help during discussions.

7) Space outside for more art/sculpture/installations. I know, the rain was bad on Saturday, but it wasn't as bad on Friday.

I think having ushers to mind the doors to the performance spaces would be useful. Especially Upstairs, where the doors banged a lot.

9) temporary carpet on the Booming Stairs, might cut down on the noise from them. No idea what to do about the hand dryers in the toilets.

10) Better signage to keep people from getting lost

I think that takes care of my observations._________________Garret: It's so retro.
EGM: What does retro mean to you?
Parker: Like, old and outdated.Home,My Studio,and another view

day before the show...run around with a can of sewing machine oil and hit every hinge available?

I really loved Star Lake Camp!

Fall is a better time for me. mid summer humidity is taxing without AC.

I think it was Kevin Kissinger who WD40'd the doors to Upstairs because they were screeching every time someone came in. A Facilities crew to do stuff like that for the performance spaces might be useful.

I like the fall, although September might be less rainy and just as crisp._________________Garret: It's so retro.
EGM: What does retro mean to you?
Parker: Like, old and outdated.Home,My Studio,and another view

A few thoughts on lodging: I'm still in awe of the fact that we even have a place to stay onsite...great, great idea...it really made the festival easier to enjoy knowing we could just stroll off to our rooms whenever we needed shuteye.

That said, esp. for the non-musicians who attend, I think it would be good to do a couple things next time around:

-Have at least one designated "quiet" cabin/section/etc. in which music demos and impromptu jams are prohibited. Some folks who travel a long way and/or need more sleep would benefit from being able to choose to room here.

-Also, though the beds were quite comfortable, the provided sheets didn't fit them the best. I'd recommend that folks be advised to bring a set of their own sheets if so desired.

* I definitely plan on participating in more of the workshops next time if they're offered again. What I saw of the casperelectronics workshop was fabulous, and I enjoyed just being Beth's spare hands for soldering.

* I wonder if it would be possible to opt out of the meals? I understand if it's necessary to cover the expenses of having the service and I appreciated the showmanship of Chef Geoff, but I wonder if there are other very picky and forgetful eaters like myself who prefer to just get groceries and/or eat out.

* The location was nice, but I wouldn't mind switching it up to a different venue in a different state since I rationalize this fiscally as a vacation.

* Another vote of encouragement for the swap meet.

Overall though, again: what an amazing event. I am in awe of the hard work and preparation that this requires and would be happy to lend a hand in any way that I can in the future. Thank you!

* I wonder if it would be possible to opt out of the meals? I understand if it's necessary to cover the expenses of having the service and I appreciated the showmanship of Chef Geoff, but I wonder if there are other very picky and forgetful eaters like myself who prefer to just get groceries and/or eat out.

Yes you can opt out of the meal plan...i think it was $22 a day for the meals. _________________ ElectroCasa

We are hoping to get a date earlier in October or September for next year. We won't know for sure until around the end of this year. That might make it possible to have more activities outside, including jams and installations. I've also been concerned that the jam room had to share space with the seminars. This was unavoidable given only three usable rooms in the commons building. We tried to set up the cabin for jams but that didn't work out. If we have a few more people, we can reserve two cabins - one can be a "quiet" space. If the weather is a little warmer, we can use the Tabernacle, which is the large building just up the hill from the commons - it's unheated but has a large stage and audience area.
I probably won't schedule regular performances for after midnight, to lessen the workload on volunteers (who were getting quite exhausted by 2am). But we can leave the stages open for jams or maybe collaborative sessions like we had at midnight upstairs all three nights (collaborative sessions are like jams, except that they have owners and a predetermined lineup instead of being "open").
Keep the suggestions coming! But remember that most things can only happen if someone volunteers to take charge, bring the necessary supplies, find people to help, etc._________________www.gregwaltzer.com

2) The jam space was a problem the first night; basically a conflicting use of the building occurred. That should be prevented from happening next year. I really think the jams should just be blocked into the performance schedule and done in the Downstairs..[/quote]

This is a great idea.
I'm interested in participating in, or perhaps even organizng a noise jam in 2010 and would hate to bleed noise into someones performance upstairs,...or even downstairs for that matter.
I would like to add something else to this idea.
Perhaps we can set up the noise jam next to the swap meet tables so we can showcase the circuit bent toys and noisemakers. This way, we can leave the stage area free for the performance artists and, when the noise jam ends, the next band won't be disturbed. During live performance, people playing noisemakers downstairs should be encouraged to wear headphones.
If the weather is favorable, we could even do the jam outside.

There are definitely some great positive-thinking suggestions here, and I'll add the following:

o Laundry: I underpacked and my clothes got pretty ripe, sorry about that if you noticed. I'm not used to travel so laundry would have helped me out (or would have helped those talking to me out, haha).

o Exercise: I volunteer for this one, I think. I was so thrilled about the positive response I got for my laptop battle performance involving hand motions that created music that I dreamed up the following concept: Musical Tai Chi. I plan to focus my energy on developing ways that we can do Tai Chi in a class format with little circuit boards on our hands that create music from motion. Then I'd like to do a class starting each day where we loan/sell the little boards to the audience and everyone does musical Tai Chi, etc. I'll start a thread in the eChucK forum (under DIY) about it so you can read the details.

I probably won't schedule regular performances for after midnight, to lessen the workload on volunteers (who were getting quite exhausted by 2am). But we can leave the stages open for jams or maybe collaborative sessions like we had at midnight upstairs all three nights (collaborative sessions are like jams, except that they have owners and a predetermined lineup instead of being "open").

Despite the fact that I stumbled into my second night of sound duty downstairs from 7 PM until 2:30 AM when the volunteer-on-shift disappeared after 10 minutes on duty (you know who you are), it was the best night for me, and things really heated up musically for me, personally, after 10 PM. This is a volunteer's vote in favor of not cutting off the performance schedule at midnight. Masochism, I suppose.

Also, I suggested on another thread, and Beth and some other folks agreed, that an art gallery of 2D photos, paintings or other electro-music inspired, non-video visual art would be a nice addition. There were a lot of visual artists there, and not all of them were presenting or post on the forum. This could be by proposal submission, similar to the way musical performances are reviewed now before acceptance._________________When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks.

What are the prospects of going back to the old Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule? That might increase average turnout, although the thought of trying to get to work Monday after being up until 4 AM is daunting._________________When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks.

smokris got video of most of the people in the downstairs... coordinating with someone to get video of the upstairs (the person running lights and/or sound could tend the camera) and maybe even talks, etc. would be so! insanely! awesome! especially because there's almost always two things happening at once, and one can end up feeling really torn!

smokris also threw together a little "up next" animation for the downstairs, with a clock on the screen. something like this upstairs could be useful as well, from whomever is doing visuals up there.

julie's situation got pretty dire as more people showed up. a dedicated computer for the sole purpose of organizing registrations is absolutely essential. the poor woman couldn't get away from that desk for more than a few seconds the whole time. even when others volunteered to cover for her, the algorithm they had to follow was so complex that it caused problems. with all the collective programming expertise we have, i'm sure we could hack together a little script to take care of this so she can have a break or two next year! and maybe instead of smashing a spare laptop, we could give it to her. (her "personal" laptop actually belongs to her school so she couldn't bring it, since her sub needed it)

Oh yeah, one other small suggestion: increase the performance duration of the laptop battle. Most of us went on for well over 10 minutes anyway, and I have so much stuff I'm already planning for next year I doubt if I can keep it down to 10 minutes next year.

Also, a couple of folks were discussing a livecoding competition. I know Howard is down on choosing winners, but really all participants are winners the way this crowd operates.

Oh yeah, one other small suggestion: increase the performance duration of the laptop battle. Most of us went on for well over 10 minutes anyway, and I have so much stuff I'm already planning for next year I doubt if I can keep it down to 10 minutes next year.
Les

Les i believe it is 15 minutes for laptop battle time slots.

Also.. if you are going to have a lot of material maybe you should consider doing a performance...would be cool~!_________________ ElectroCasa

Well, Shane, it was 15 minutes total including 5 minutes for setup. Some took longer and some not as long to set up depending on the complexity of their gear. Some performed for 10 minutes and some for closer to 15 or 20 or so. Maybe it's best to specify an approximate time interval rather than a maximum, since most people went over time.

I expected to have someone there with a clock calling time at 10 minutes or something formal like that, but it was explained to me how low key we are here and I like that a lot.

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